Venezuelan lawmakers voted unanimously to issue a declaration condemning the massacre of 12 civilians by soldiers, a rare display of unity in a country torn by a political crisis.

President Nicolas Maduro's allies and the opposition majority yesterday came together to "condemn the forced disappearance and killing of a number of citizens... By members of the military," they said.

The resolution refers to a bloody security operation in October that left 12 farmers missing.

Their bodies were later found rotting in mass graves in the mountains outside the town of Barlovento, in the central state of Miranda.

Eleven soldiers were arrested for the killings.

Yesterday's vote was just the second time Maduro's coalition and the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) have unanimously adopted a piece of legislation since the latter won control of the National Assembly last year.

The other was an endorsement of Pope Francis's call for dialogue on the country's raging crisis.